TY GIBBS LEADS TEAM TOYOTA WITH THIRD-PLACE FINISH AT MARTINSVILLE
Toyota Places Four Cars Inside the Top 10 on Sunday
MARTINSVILLE, Va. (November 1, 2026) – Ty Gibbs finished third to lead Team Toyota in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway.
Four total Toyota Camry XSE’s finished inside the top 10, which included Gibbs, Denny Hamlin in sixth, Bubba Wallace in eighth and Christopher Bell in 10th.
Bell now sits second in the Championships standings, 67 points behind the leader heading into next weekend’s Cup Series season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Hamlin sits third, 70 points out and are the only drivers mathematically eligible to win the 2026 Championship behind leader Kyle Larson.
TOYOTA RACING Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Martinsville Speedway
Race 35 of 36 – 263 miles, 500 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, William Byron*
2nd, Chase Elliott*
3rd, TY GIBBS
4th, Josh Berry*
5th, Shane Van Gisbergen*
6th, DENNY HAMLIN
8th, BUBBA WALLACE
10th, CHRISTOPHER BELL
12th, TYLER REDDICK
14th, CHASE BRISCOE
29th, ERIK JONES
31st, JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK
32nd, RILEY HERBST
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
TY GIBBS, No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 3rd
How were you were able to keep track position and bring home a strong finish?
“It was just a long night. Not a lot of passing. The tire was just really sensitive and the tire was made recently. Just made the material newer and fresher and easier to wear. The 54 Monster Energy, SAIA Toyota was really fast but not fast enough. We were close enough and in contention, we’ll just go out there and go get them next week and next year.”
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 King’s Hawaiian Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 6th
How would you describe the day?
“Just really came down to stage one with us running the no-stop strategy. Lost all of our track position there. When we got to the back, then you got all those incidents, the cautions, then obviously the 22 (Joey Logano) got the 20 (Christopher Bell), and the 20 got into us. It’s racing, I guess. You’re going to have that.We just lost our track position. Once we lost our track position, the strategy, it’s hard to drive back to the front. Nobody else did. Obviously got some decent damage there.”
You’re not out of it mathematically. It’s a very steep climb. What kind of an attitude do you take into next week?
We didn’t capitalize today on Larson not getting any stage points and stuff like that. Yeah, just the first stage. The first stage was the killer for us that set us back. At the end of the first stage, not only that, we had to restart last because we had to wave around. It was just a lot of unfortunate timing of some things. For us, this weekend, it was about everything to gain, nothing to lose. We just didn’t gain enough to make it realistic.”
Some people would say next week would take a miracle. How confident are you at Homestead with your team to do your part?
“Yeah, I mean, I feel confident that I’ll be able to go there and contend. I’d love to get another win before the end of the year. I thought it was going to come today. We’ll have to get one more shot at it next week and see if we can’t get one more win.”
CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 Rheem Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 10th
There is a big gap to (Kyle) Larson. What did you get here that was right and what did you maybe miss?
“I don’t know. I mean, I think at least myself, I got tricked into thinking I was better than I was. My team, Adam (Stevens, crew chief), did a great strategy call there in stage one to pit and got us a bunch of track position. On the Stage 2 start, I felt like I was pretty good. Adam came on the radio and said that William (Byron) was running part throttle. I’m at 100%, he’s at 80%. I don’t know, I was pretty close on the short run, then the long run I fell off. All in all, 10th is probably about where we stacked up. It was a really hectic day. It is what it is.”
About Toyota
Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in North America for nearly 70 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands, plus our more than 1,800 dealerships.
Toyota directly employs nearly 64,000 people in North America who have contributed to the design, engineering, and assembly of over 50 million cars and trucks at our 14 manufacturing plants. In 2025, Toyota’s plant in North Carolina began to assemble automotive batteries for electrified vehicles.
For more information about Toyota, visit www.ToyotaNewsroom.com.
